Happy Birthday Zander!

Yesterday was Zanders 2nd birthday! It is crazy how fast time has gone buy. He is so much fun. We love all the words he picks up and how polite he is. He always says please and thank you and I just love his little voice.

His cousin Mason is just four days older than Zander so on Saturday we got together with my side of the family and had a part at McDonald's. It was a lot of fun to let the kids run around. My sister Megan, Masons mom, brought cup cakes.



They had this very fun play area with soft toys that were instruments that actually played music. Zander had a blast!

Here are the boys enjoying their cup cakes

Sunday we had Abe's side of the family over which was also a lot of fun. Zander loved having them over and showing them all of his fun presents

He loved his cake and everyone singing happy birthday to him. He picked up on the happy birthday song after last month when it was my nephew Ethan's birthday party and he will start singing just the words happy birthday. You could tell he felt very special while everyone was singing to him.

And since I have never written down Zander's birth story I think I will share it here.

Zander was born on Friday November 20th 2009. I woke up around 4:30am with some contractions and woke Abe up. He leaves for work early in the morning and I wanted to let him know he would probably have to call in. We stayed home until around 8am when the contractions started getting closer together. When we got to the hospital and they checked me I was contracting every 2 min but I had not dilated since my last appt. So they had me walk the halls of Labor and Delivery to see if that would help. Abe was great while he walked with me and would rub my back through contractions. I was worried they would send me home. I remember asking the nurse that if I went home how would I know to come back in? She just said when the contractions hurt more. I did not feel great about that!

Luckily I dilated more and was admitted. I ended up staying in the same hospital room that my sister-in-law Kenzee did two months earlier when she had her baby. I did get an epidural which was great! I was able to rest and relax most of the day. It was just Abe and I so we watched movies and waited. My water broke on it's own. When the nurses told me that things were progressing I really started pushing my epidural button in preparation for the pushing. Finally around 6pm they decided to have me start to push. So I called my mom at that time to let her know. They live 45 min away so I figured by the time she got their I would have had the baby or pretty close too. That was so not the case. I pushed and pushed but really had no progress. After about 40 min they said I needed to take a rest because Zanders heart rate was not recovering enough between pushes and my contractions were a little to close together for him. So I took a  20 min break and during that time my mom and Abe's mom came into the room. It was really nice to see them. They ended up staying when I started to push again. I got so nauseated and threw up the orange Popsicle I had during the break. That was kind of embarrassing throwing up in a room full of people. The nurse and the MA were great they had me push several different ways. One was pulling on one end of a towel while the MA held the other. I also pushed on my side. Still we were not having a lot of progress. I kept asking if I was doing it right. They reassured me I was and said I had great breath control which I attributed to all my years of swimming. Finally after two hours the doctor came into the room. The epidural was starting to were off a little I had not pushed the button at all while I was pushing so I could feel the contractions at the top of my stomach. It was not painful just very tight.  I was not very happy with my doctor as she I had been told through the whole day she would come into check on me and she never did. Her office was only down the hall! Anyways I kept pushing with her and she was able to reach up and adjust Zander a bit. His head was kind of cocked and making it hard for him to get through. She finally said that we would do two more pushes but after that if he was still not here she was going to need to do a C-section. So on that next push I pushed with all my might and held my breath and just kept pushing and finally he was here!! It was such a relief after pushing for so long. The nurse said that not may women would have been able to deliver that baby naturally after pushing for so long. I was also very glad to have my mom with me in the room. Abe was able to go with Zander while he got checked out on the other end of the room so my mom was able to stay by my side.

Abe and I were so happy and elated with our new baby he was perfect. Although he had a big bump his head from were he was stuck. We were just glad not to have to do a c-section and finally be able to hold our baby boy!

Halloween!

Hello Everyone!
Sorry it has been so long. I started my new job and am loving it. It's taking a bit to get used to my new schedule but, over all everything is going really well. So I now work in the evenings from 5pm-11pm. Abe is home by 3pm and Zander is loving all the mom and dad time!

We had our Halloween party which turned out great! We love everyone who was able to make it and their costumes. It makes it so fun!

This was our invitation this year. It's hard to tell in the pics but it was a sparkly skeleton. Thank you Martha Stewart:)

Zander and his cousin Briggs loved playing with them

This was our scary spider just outside our front door. Every time we went inside Zander would say scary spider and then touch it. He always wanted to touch the spider.

Here is Abe helping Zander with his costume before the party. Zander was a little Frankenstein which we loved. He also loved his costume until the actual night of Halloween when he screamed murder trying to get him into it.

Here we are as a scary family. Abe and I were Mortisha and Gomez Adams. Everyone loved Abes costume. My wig drove me nuts the whole night. It was a lot of hair.

Here is our Halloween decor. We got a wall decal also from Martha Stewart with this skeleton, spiders, and moths. We really loved it until we had to take them off the wall and they took paint with them. We even got out our steamer and it still took paint with it!

I made badges for our costume contest and love how they turned out.

Here is Mason as a spider

This is Abes cousin and her boyfriend. They were rowdy hockey fans who got into a scuffle

Here is our Brother in law as a ninja!

This is Abes sister and her family all dressed as pirates.

Sorry for the blurry pics it was hard running around and trying to get pics so I don't think I got as many this year. Everyone really looked great in their costume's! We also had a family of bears, Zombie hunters, Indiana Jones, witches, princesses and a tiger!

We played a few games with the kids and had them pin the tail on the cat and then a doughnut on a rope eating contest that was way fun. We also had the adults guess how much our pumpkin weighed. Along with some great food!

Awesome and Random News!

I am very excited to announce that I just got a new job!
I will now be working at the Intermountain Medical Center Central Lab. The best part is that it will be part time and in the evenings from 5pm-11pm which will allow me to stay home during the day with Zander. Abe will be home by 3pm so it will work nicely were we won't have to have Zander in daycare anymore!
The new hours will take some adjusting but Abe and I both feel this will be great! The hard thing is that Abe and I will only see eachother for about an hour before I will have to leave for work but we will have the weekends together. It is also a bit of a commute.

Other great news! I am getting lasik this week! I have been wanting to have this done for a long long time and am very excited to finally be getting it done! Abe is such an amazing husband and helped make this happen!

On a very big bummer note. At the beginning of spring Abe re-injured his knee while playing soft ball. He had injured it a few times when he was younger. He just went into see the surgeon and it was much worse than we orginally thought and he will be needing surgery and laid up for possibly 8-9 weeks. We thought it was just some cartilege that needed to be cleaned up but apparently he has some major knee problems that they will need to fix along with the cartalege. So we are looking at doing surgery somtime during the first part of next year.

Other happy news is that it's October and Halloween is almost here!!!
I will post our Halloween decor pics soon!
I think Abe and I will be Mortisha and Gomez Adams and Zander is going to be Frankenstine.

We also have just one puppy left from our litter! It is one of the little girls. She was sold at one point but it fell through. She is such a sweetie and I hope we can find a good family for her soon!

Helping Hand

Today while I was walking into the hospital were I work I noticed an older lady in a wheel chair strugeling to push her self into the building. She had a brace on her leg from what looked to be a broken leg. I could not see anyone with her that was helping and she was obvously having a hard time pushing herself. I walked up along side her and asked if she would like some help. She was very greatful and accepted gladly. She had stated she was having a hard time manuvering the wheel chair on her own and had even lost traction on the wheels when trying to get up the low curb.

We chit chatted a bit and I helped her into the elevator and then to the doctors office she was trying to find. She was very greatful for the assistance and that I helped her all the way to the doctors office even though it was not on the floor I was headed too.

I must say that too many times I would have just walked by and I am greatful that I was intuned enough with what was going on around me that I could see she needed help. Much of the time I am busy in my own thoughts and with what I need to get done and were I am going to notice.

My mom is great with noticing those things around her and taking action. I remember when she and I were waiting in line at Costco to get gas. In one of the cars ahead of us a lady was sitting in her car while filling it with gas when the gas tank started to overflowed and spill out, while the woman in the car did not notice. My mom acted quickly and got out of the car and ran over to take out the hose and turn off the gas. While many people honked their horm to get the womans attention my mom actually acted. That is one thing I truly admire about my mother and what she has been able to teach her children.

I hope that we can all notice those around us not just strangers but those we love most and take action to help them feel loved and appreciated. I know I need to do better with this.

The Utah State Fair!

So this week we went to the Utah State Fair. This is the first time EVER that I have been to a fair. It was awesome!

First we wondered around and checked out all the diffrent booths. We ended up getting Zanders name done with water colors. It turned out really nice but I did not get a picture. I want to get it framed so maybe then I will post a pic

Here are Abe and Zander possing with a cool old Utah police car. I love how Zander is all into it in the first pic and then laid back in the second:)



Sorry my blogger is being retarded so it won't let me write above the other pics. One of our most favorite parts was seeing all the animals. Zander loved them! In one of the pics above it is really hard to tell because of my flash but it was the biggest bull I have ever seen in my life. His legs were HUGE! I also must say that I had never been that close up to a cow before.

Our favorite was this sheep that was very friendly

Next I needed to get some carni food! I had a funnel cake for the first time with buvarian cream and strawberries and it was delish. Then I had a fried snickers! It was amazing. Luckely my brother-in-law was also their and he and I split it so I did not consume all the calories myself.

It was a very fun night and I hope to go again next year! I think I will give the fried twinkies and oreos a try at the next one.

Flaming Gorg 2011!

A few weeks ago we went on our yearly vacation to Flaming Gorg. For those who are not familiar with were it is its in north east Utah on the boarder of Utah and Wyoming. We love going to the lake!

We go with Abe's family and it's always great time. We had tons of fun boating, fishing, eating, and playing. Although we did not catch many fish:) Also the food was fantastic. My favorite was when Abe made pizza in the dutch oven. I will have to do a post sometime with instructions. It really was fabulous. That night Kenzee and I made a peach raspberry cobbler that was the best thing ever!

Here is Zander getting ready for the trip on his Grandpa Fitch's boat

Zander absolutely LOVED the water. He would wake up and the first thing he would say is water! water! He wanted to go right out and get into the water and play. We camped right on the beach. The water was the highest we have ever seen it. It came up 10 feet while we were there so we had to move our camp site back after a few days. That was even knowing the water would come up and trying to plan enough space so we would not have to move.
I must say it was nice to get home were I did not have to make sure Zander was not eating sand, getting into something, crawling under things or running into the water.

We also took our little motor bikes. Abe took Zander on a little ride around our camp and the look on Zanders face was priceless. He felt so big being on the bike with his dad. He kept wanting to take the handle bars and steer. I think we may be in trouble with this kid:)

Here is Zander with his Uncle Andy and cousin Briggs. Andy took the boys out on a walk and had them running waving their arms! It was hilarious.


 And here are the boys just chillen at camp.


 




Here is Zander with his Grandpa Fitch . We got the boys this little boat that has a mesh bottom. They loved to float around and splash.




We took a boat ride up to the dam to see if the cosway was open letting a bunch of water into the river but it was closed, which was kind of a bummer. You can see how high the water is up the dam! It's nuts how much water they are getting and you could still see snow in the mountains.

Abe also took Zander out with him on a jet ski ride. Which again Zander loved. I think he fell asleep on one of the little rides. Abe had him steer a little and the next day Zander figured out which button started the jet ski by watching Abe do it.

The evenings were perfect and I loved the light! This is Abe's sister Kenzee and her family walking behind were we camped. I like that this pic is not totally sharp I think it gives it a dreamy look and I love the sun flair at the bottom.

Here I am with Zander looking out over the water. Two days after we took this picture the road we are on was covered by the water.

Here we are as a family. Zander always wants to swing when we both hold his hands so it was hard to get a picture of him walking:)

Vacations go by way to fast! We had a great week being away from work and just being together as a family!

Also check out the Komondor blog! The puppies are a week old and getting cuter and cuter

We have puppies!

Nessie had her pups this morning. We just got back from vacation yesterday so we were very happy she decided to wait until we were all home. When we woke up she had already had 7 of them. She ended up having two more but one did not make it. So we have a total of 8 puppies 3 female and 5 male. I am so proud of how well she is doing and what a great job she did!

You can see more pics on the komondor blog

Big News!

That's right we are expecting....... puppies!!!
Honestly this is a big surprise to use. We new Nessie could be going into heat soon but over the last week she has gotten huge. I had her into the vet at the end of May asking him what to look for. We did not want to breed her on her first time going into heat. So he went over things and when to separate the dogs. So when I thought she might be going into heat we separated the dogs for 2 weeks. We were really surprised to find out she was expecting. Here is the bigger surprise. We took her into the groomers yesterday and he said based on his experience she will probably have her puppies in the next 2 weeks!!! Unless she is having a really big litter, which komondors usually have 8 to 12 puppies. So she would already have had to be pregnant when I took her into the vet to ask him about what to look for. Really she showed no signs!!!

So I am starting a blog for Crombie and Nessie about everything komondor called Our Crazy Komondors. That way you can follow her through out the remainder of her pregnancy and then once she has the puppies you can follow them and see them grow! I will also be posting our experience in training and raising them and how great they are with Zander! Really these dogs are gentle giants. We are excited to be expecting our first litter and to become breeders. We will be the only breeders of Komondors in Utah. So if you are interested in a puppy or know of anyone who may be interested please send me an email or leave a comment. We will be taking deposits on the pups once they are born and will be able to go to a new loving family 8 weeks after they are born.

Here is the expecting momma! Look at her puppy bump!

After the groomers she looks totally different and her belly looks even bigger! We had them shave her totally down for the summer.
You can also get to the Komondor blog through the link on our sidebar:)

Happy 4th of July!

Hello Everyone I hope you are all having a lovely summer. We have been very busy enjoying the sunshine.

As of late Zander and I are hitting up Lagoon every Monday with my sister Megan, cousin Amanda and their kids. This last week my older sister Mindy and her family came to stay the summer so now they will be joining us! It is great to see Mindy she and her family live in Dubai so we only see them once a year or so. So to have them stay for two months is really exciting. Her husband was able to stay the first week but has to go back to work and will be back their last week to pick them up.

For Fathers Day I had this picture taken in Pioneer Village at Lagoon for Abe. He loved it!

Poor Zander had some allergies this day so his eyes are a little red. We only got 3 pics taken when he decided he was done playing dress up. At least we got a pretty good one. I also gave a copy to my dad and father-in-law.

Here are Abe and Zander at the Kaysville 4th of July paraid. We colored Zans hair for fun, he was very patriotic:) Also notice Abes lack of hair! He buzzed it all off. It was kinda an accident to cut it that short but, it's growing on both of us and he may even just keep it short since he is thinning more and more on top.

The weather was great for most of the paraid. It was overcast which made it nice although it was a bit muggie. Towards the end it started to sprinkle so we packed up and headed for the car which we made just in time before it really started coming down. The paraid was actually the end of our crazy 4th of July weekend. On Sat we had a BBQ at my uncles and swam in his pool with lots and lots of extended family and cousins. Zander had a blast in the pool! We then watched the Riverton Fireworks that night from my grandparents hill. Then on Sunday we celebrated the 4th with Abes family. Abe and his brother Andy took a trip up to Evanston and got some now legal fireworks! It was the best fireworks show I have ever been to. It was crazy to see which fireworks are now legal in Utah. We did get a visit from a very nice police man who said he enjoyed the show.

I am finding it harder and harder to take pictures while out and about so the paraid are the only pictures from the 4th I took. Zander is always on the go and I never have enough time to get a pic!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I truly appreciate this great country which we live in and all the men and women who help to keep it this way.

Memorial Weekend

For Memorial Day weekend we went camping to Lava Hot springs Idaho. It is just a few hours north of us. We went with Abes sister Kenzee and her family. They had just bought a new motor home so this was there first time out with it. Abes younger brother Andy and his girlfriend also came.

We stayed at the Smiths Trout Haven camp grounds.We really loved it there. They have two trout ponds you can fish from and our camping spots were right by the ponds. We also were next to a field with two very friendly horses.

When we got to the camp grounds the weather was okay but as we started to set up it really started to rain! We were so happy that we have a trailer and did not have to tent it!

Here is our camp site. It was nice having the grass but they had just cut it and the clippings were everywere so with the rain it was hard not to track the grass all over the place.

Here is Zan with Abes sister and her family feeding grass to the horses.

Zander LOVED the horses. He would wake up in the morning and see them out the window and say "puppies!" pretty much every animal is a puppy to him.

No family trip would be complete without the puppies:) Nessie is on the left and Crombie is on the right. Nessie is getting bigger than Crombie! They are both so much fun! They loved getting out and being in a new place. This was Nessies first time taking a road trip and she did great!

They have a little park at the camp grounds with these awesome teeter-taughters so we dragged one back to our site. Everyone had a blast on it and no one got hurt which was a miracle considering the stuff they all tried to do.

I did not participate in the standing and trying to balance. I know my limits:)

Abes dad had to work over the weekend so they were not able to camp but they did drive up for dinner one of the nights. Both of these boys love their Grandpa!

It was a bit chilly but on Saturday it was the nicest day so we went swimming. It got a little to cold at the outdoor pool for the little boys so we took them to the indoor pool which was a blast. They have a climbing wall that comes out of the water. We also went for a walk up and down main street and checked out the shops.

On Monday morning Abes brother and girlfriend were nice enough  to watch Zander so Abe and I could hit the hot springs. It was my first time going to the actual hot springs and they were so nice and relaxing. I am glad we waited to go early on Monday. There were not nearly as many people. We had tried to go a few times but the place was packed.

It was a very fun trip!